Ashley Wagner’s Olympics Rant: Furious About Russian Skater’s Win

Ashley is furious about skaters who fell, yet still placed above her, in the women’s figure skating individual program, including 15-year-old Yulia Lipnitskaia.

Figure skaters toil their whole lives to hopefully one day get a shot at an Olympic medal, so of course tension runs high and disappointment is inevitable for all but three lucky and skillful women. But at this year’s Sochi Winter games, American ice princess Ashley Wagner is questioning if the women who made her sport’s podium really deserved to be there.

Ashley Wagner, Who Never Fell, Feels Cheated

That’s right, Ashley is not happy about the Feb. 20 figure skating finals results, but before you start calling her bitter — she placed 7th — she does have some legitimate reasons to be feeling icy about the outcome.

There is nothing like the anticipation of a viewer when a skater is about to go for a jump. We know they might falter, stumble or even end up on their bums in the landing, and when this happens, we know their chances to win are grim.

Or are they? Ashley, 22, did not once fall on the ice and yet she finished two places behind Russian 15-year-old, Yulia Lipnitskaiawho fell in all three of her programs. Ashley also placed behind Mao Asada and fellow US teammate, Gracie Gold, both of whom tumbled to the ice during their shots at Olympic gold.

Although judges’ scores are based on “the complete package”, a combination of technical skill and artistry, it does seem a bit strange that a skater who fell three times managed to pummel the score of one who didn’t fall at all.

Even commentators were confused by this one! They took to twitter with statements like, “@cbrennansports: Lost Internet for quite awhile but headline is that this is worse than Salt Lake City. Terrible decision.” and “@billplaschke: Kim didn’t win…unbelievable…scandal written all over this…Russian Sotnikova wins, fans going crazy, Kim disappears, wrong, wrong.”